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Profiling bilingualism in an historically Afrikaans community on the Beaufort West Hooyvlakte

Anthonie, Alexa N. (2009-12)

Thesis (MA (General Linguistics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009.

Thesis

ENGLISH SUMMARY: This sociolinguistic study examines selected aspects of the linguistic behavior of a rural
language community in South Africa. The general aims are to establish first, whether this
"coloured" community in the historically Afrikaans town of Beaufort West is still
predominantly Afrikaans, second, whether there is evidence of language shift in the
community, specifically following more use of English in other formerly Afrikaans
communities after the change of government in 1994, and third, what the nature of such
language shift may be.
An overview of pertinent aspects of the social and political history of South Africa generally
and of Beaufort West specifically, is presented in order to contextualise the language
dispensation – past and present – addressed in this study. History reveals that the town in
question was first named Hooyvlakte and only later acquired the name of Beaufort West.
Hooyvlakte is currently the name of one of the suburbs in which a section of Beaufort West's
"coloured" community resides. For the purpose of this study the larger Beaufort West
community which is in focus here, is also referred to as the Hooyvlakte community
The study is mainly of a qualitative nature. The respondents were 184 members of the
Hooyvlakte community, they included individuals of both genders and were aged between 16
and 87 years. The only requirement for participation in this study was that the respondent
should have been a Beaufort West resident for at least 15 years. Each respondent completed a
questionnaire from which his/her language proficiency, language use and language preference
could be assessed. The questionnaire also allowed respondents an opportunity to express their
opinion on the value and practice of multilingualism in their community.
The results of this study indicate that the Hooyvlakte community remains predominantly
Afrikaans. There is, however, an increase in the knowledge and use of English, and despite
possible limits in actual English proficiency, the residents in the Hooyvlakte mostly view
themselves as balanced Afrikaans-English bilinguals. This view is related to the gradual
change in linguistic identity, from an almost exclusively (often stigmatized) Afrikaans
identity to a (mostly proud) Afrikaans-English bilingual one. The stigmatized "coloured" and
Afrikaans identities appear to be products of South Africa's sociopolitical history of ethnic
and cultural categorisation and segregation. Stigma, on the one hand, and exclusion, on the
other, have led to a desire in the Hooyvlakte community to associate with a language other
than Afrikaans as well. This shift to an Afrikaans-English bilingual identity contrasts with the
shift from predominantly Afrikaans monolingualism to virtual monolingualism in English
found in other Coloured communities studied in the Western Cape's and Eastern Cape's
metropoles (see Anthonissen and George 2003; Farmer 2009; Fortuin 2009).